Industry-wide notebook shipments will continue to decline in 2014, claims NPD DisplaySearch. Revised estimates predict shipments from all vendors, including Apple, will reach 134 million units, down from an earlier estimate of 152 million unit.

One factor contributing to this decline is the expected Q3 2014 launch of Intel's upcoming Broadwell CPU. Intel confirmed in its latest earnings conference call that its Broadwell chipset will enter production in Q1 2014 and become available in the second half of 2014. Slowing PC demand and yield issues forced Intel to delay Broadwell by at least a quarter from its original timetable, with that delay likely contributing further weakness in the PC market. Intel's Haswell processor line, the company's current CPU family and predecessor to Broadwell, was released in June 2013 and landed in the MacBook Air during the same month.

DisplaySearch also cites the rumored 12.9-inch iPad, wearables and the convergence of mobile and desktop operating systems as market forces that could shift consumers away from notebook PCs.

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At the same time, the expected launch of a 12.9" iPad from Apple could trigger growth in larger tablet PC screen sizes, leading to even more competition for potential notebook PC buyers. In addition, wearable devices and other new concepts are expected to compete for consumer spending during the holiday season and beyond. Finally, the trend toward user-interface fusion and operating-system integration will offer a more seamless working platform between mobile devices and PCs, which would further extend mobile device advantages for businesses.

Despite a declining market, Mac sales in the just-ending quarter were strong, increasing from 4.06 million units in Q1 2013 to 4.8 million in Q1 2014. Mac net sales accounted for 11% of the company's revenue for the quarter, up slightly from 10% a year ago.

The Intel announced delay in November is exactly why I bought a Haswell rMBP. My brand new iMac was a great steal, but you still need portability. Probably will be October for whole line, though only MBA will probably get a full makeover.

Ideally, in the long term, hardware should be a declining and then stabilized market. Apple should produce just enough for new users and to replace the infrequently lost or broken units. Hardware should be real-world-rugged enough to last for decades like my iron skillet and then only the firmware updates, operating system system updates (subscription revenue for Apple), applications and content (e.g., music, video, books, etc) is where the sales are. This is a good ecological solution.

I bought the Ivy Bridge revision of the 13" rMBP that was released in Feb. 2013, which I'm very happy with. I think I'll skip Broadwell and look at whatever they come out with next (is it still "Skylake"?) At this rate, that probably won't be until early 2017.

I guess this means no 11.85" Retina MacBook Air before July/August. Apple would probably want the Broadwell GPU and lower power requirements to power the screen without requiring a humongous battery like the rMBP.

A while back there was rumors of Apple looking to switch to ARM for the Macs. Given this delay, I wonder if Apple has been thinking about this or even working on a prototype (just in case). The A7 along with the M7 seems to be doing pretty well for the ipad and iphone. With an A/M8 and the expected bump in performance, I would not be surprised if that chip set could handle OSX.

Has anyone heard any news about OSX on ARM lately?

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